


Double-Blind

by fyrefly



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Antonia Stark - Freeform, F/F, F/M, Female Loki, FrostIron - Freeform, Frostiron Secret Santa 2015, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Not Thor: The Dark World Compliant, Rule 63 Tony - Freeform, disguises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 18:28:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5596357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fyrefly/pseuds/fyrefly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The god of lies would have pegged the inventor as a peacock, someone who would constantly thrust himself into the limelight at any possible opportunity.  This was nonsensical - no sightings at all for the man's entire adult life?  There could be no doubt about it, the Man of Iron had something to hide.  And Loki had all the time in the world to figure out what it was.</p>
<p>Gift for roodlz for the Frostiron Secret Santa 2015.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Double-Blind

Loki supposed he ought to be grateful.  In his more rational moods, when he contemplated the idea of being trapped for all eternity in the dungeons beneath the palace, he knew he had gotten off easy.  Frigga had interceded on his behalf, forgiving and understanding and still his mother in spite of everything, even if was certain a parental title could never again be granted to her husband.  His crimes were grievous and his body count was high indeed, but still nowhere as near as high as Odin's.

It was determined that his unprovoked actions against the realm of Midgard, which had never before had quarrel with Adgard, would define his punishment.  Fifty years in exile - no wanton destruction, no killing excepting self-defense that he did not orchestrate the need for himself - and perhaps a return to Asgard earlier if he deigned to prove himself useful to the world's people.

If he didn't die of boredom first.

His needs were simple and his talents many - he could work his way in anywhere he liked but the general populace was so boring - their secrets and quarrels too petty to keep his attention for long.  It had barely been a month after the attack before he found himself gravitating back to New York City.  The home of the only humans he had found to be even remotely interesting.

Most of the Avengers were relatively simple to track down - he spent a week borrowing the face of a SHIELD agent sharing gym time to keep an eye on Steve Rogers.  He learned that the man had lost over sixty years trapped in ice as was as much a stranger to Midgard as he was.  That it itself might have been something but the man was a paladin in every sense of the word - there could be no entertaining scandals when he behaved himself so nicely.  Natasha Romanoff had been an interesting read - despairing of finding any gossip on her he had spent an afternoon with a secure terminal that a SHIELD agent had been conveniently convinced to abandon.  Clint Barton had nothing for him - he'd learned everything about him that could possibly be relevant from the staff.  Bruce Banner was difficult to find but seemed determined to live a life even more dull than his own.  His brother could not be avoided enough.

And then there was Anthony Stark.

A self-described (though he had to admit the description appeared by all accounts to be accurate) genius billionaire playboy philanthropist - and also the world's most notorious recluse.  In fact, after a week of delving into the topic he determined that as someone who had interacted with the man while he was wearing his strange mechanical armor, he could feel free to count himself among those who had spent the most time with him.  By all he could find, Anthony Stark had never once been seen in public outside of his armor.  There were plenty of accounts in tabloids by women who claimed to have been bedded by him either in Malibu or New York City, and plenty of promotional shots of him on the Stark Industries webpage, but no actual sightings or candid photographs.

Now that was interesting.

The god of lies would have pegged the inventor as a peacock, someone who would constantly thrust himself into the limelight at any possible opportunity.  This was nonsensical - no sightings at all for the man's entire adult life?  There could be no doubt about it, the Man of Iron had something to hide.

And Loki had all the time in the world to figure out what it was.

\---

It took the god of lies and mischief just under a week to come to the conclusion that Stark/Avengers Tower was unbreachable, at least for the time being.  Its owner had clearly spent some time researching the barrier he'd had Dr. Selvig create around the Tesseract, and had perhaps picked up some of his own tricks from the Chitauri technology left scattered in the streets following the battle.  In various disguises he'd worked his way up through the lower floors of the building but be it from the inside, outside, or above he simply could not breach the penthouse or the floors immediately beneath it.

Rather than discourage him, Loki was more determined than ever to reveal Tony Stark's secrets.  It was just going to take longer than he had expected.

It was lucky that Stark Industries was hiring.  A few less-loyal employees had decided that working for one of the newly-named Avengers was painting a target on their back - rather foolishly in Loki's opinion.  The only one who mattered in any of this was the Man of Iron.  In a battle they were as insignificant as any other mortal, but their loss was his gain.  It was the work of one interview and an easily-falsified resume to get a position as an office manager.  Well, perhaps the pencil skirt deserved some mention as well, because if he hadn't been right about seeing the hiring manager looking at his ass on the way out then he was no longer worthy of calling himself a master illusionist.  It was practical - if any of the Avengers were to hear "Loki is hidden on earth," they would be looking for a man.  As a woman he kept his green eyes but wore his black hair in long curls and applied mascara and bold red lipstick with a careful hand every morning.  No one would ever suspect a thing.

He'd thought for a time about applying for a position in R&D, but had discarded it.  His work would be scrutinized there by the firm's best engineers and he couldn't risk being caught out by not knowing the Midgardian terms for concepts that mirrored Asgardian magic.  Failing that, he might inadvertently provide Stark with something useful, and even if he wasn’t to directly antagonize Earth again that was unacceptable.

His current position, however, placed him squarely in the middle of the best gossip it was possible to find in the company.  Nobody questioned his remaining longer than strictly necessary to helpfully lay out the food for a working lunch while the meeting started and he could absorb the financial predictions and general business plans for the company.  Arranging schedules for some of the more scatterbrained in the company, the hiring manager's affair with his assistant was quickly uncovered and he began to enjoy  having the extra spending money each week from the blackmail money that quickly followed.  More innocent talk around the water cooler revealed that on the whole the employees were well compensated and while there had been a good deal of concern several years back about leaving the weapons industry, there was very little to worry about now.  Nobody seemed to care that they had never met or seen Tony Stark.  Pepper Potts was the CEO now at any rate, and she was very accessible.  What did it matter if the company's figurehead was an eccentric?

The work was somewhat diverting as well, once he got over the disappointment that there may not be anything to learn from the level he was currently at.  The scientists and engineers that Stark Industries employed were, to nobody's surprise, some of the smartest in the world but many did not have even the most remedial of organization skills.  For a god who kept his own personal library of three millennia’s worth of spell scrolls, the work of keeping these people organized was a welcome relief from the aimlessness that now plagued his life - something that was time-consuming but simple.  It was hard not to feel a little bit of genuine satisfaction when an piece of key experimental equipment failed and he was able to find and round up all of the key leads on the project in the lab (some of whom were not even at work that day) within two hours.  The young lab overseer (his first major project) had nearly been in tears thanking him.

A routine was a routine, after all, and even on the more irritating days he was willing to accept that he may have to play the long game, advance in the company and deal with the possibility that he may never find the information he was looking for.  That very well may have been the case had it not been for a singular piece of bad luck.

It was pouring outside one night, running into his eyes and down the back of his raincoat and Loki was moments away from ducking into an alleyway and teleporting himself back to his nice dry studio apartment, blending in with the humans be damned, when a Corvette stopped short in front of the Stark Industries outbuilding he was in front of and splashed him from head to toe in cold, muddy water.  Without thinking he threw up his bag to shield his face from the worst of it, and suddenly the ruined raincoat (in retrospect, clearly more for fashion than function) and leather pumps took a back seat in his thoughts as the Starkpad inside the bag slipped out and shattered on the pavement by his feet.

Loki dropped to his knees and surveyed the damage.  He was no expert in this world's technology but there was very little hope that anything could be salvaged from a machine that had cracked nearly in half.

"Oh my god, shit I am so sorry!" came a voice somewhere above his head and a woman was crouching beside him.

"I was running late and I just - let me help," she continued without being acknowledged, pulling a handkerchief from her own bag and gathering up the remains of the glass screen while Loki tried to wrestle the bulk of the tablet into a shape he could put back in his bag.

"Is that a Starkpad?  No don't answer that - look I can get the data off of it for you."

Loki looked up at the woman for the first time.  She wasn't the sort you'd expect to see driving such a car, hair hastily pulled back and face completely bare of makeup, but her eyes were large and a striking light brown, reminding him of whisky.  Right now they were earnest, and when he looked down he realized her hands were on the handle to his bag.

"It's a wreck.  There's not a chance you can save it," he replied.

"I was on the team that designed it.  It's the least I can do, you clearly just got off work and I just trashed your night.  I'm paying for the dry cleaning on that coat too, don't you dare say no.  Just let me try and fix this okay?"

"I..." Loki didn't want to go with a strange woman to get it fixed while all he wanted was to go home to a book and a hot drink and try to remind himself that on bad days Midgard was no worse than Asgard.  But he didn't particularly want to redo the day's work either and the tablet was too foreign to repair with magic.

"Fine," he finally said.  "But you owe me a drink, too."

The stranger's face split into a wide grin.  "Now that I can definitely do."

She pulled out her phone and fired off a quick text before popping the trunk and pulling out a tarp and throwing it over the passenger seat.

"You never know when that kind of thing comes in handy," she offered, gesturing for Loki to get inside.

The sorcerer was surprised when a few minutes later, it became apparent they were driving to Stark Tower, not even to the employee garage nearby but the one underneath that as far as he knew was reserved for The Man himself.

Before his mouth could form the question, she parked the car and turned to him with a small smile on her lips.  "Antonia Sachs.  I'm Mr. Stark's technical assistant.  He brought me on after the whole Iron Man thing, it's my job to go through his tech he leaves all over and pull things that are relevant to the company since he pretty much updates Miss Potts on that...never.  So I get to use his computers and I think the mainframe in here will help us save what's on that tablet."

Loki extended his own hand to shake hers.  "Laurel Smythe.  Office Manager for D Labs."

"They have an all-hands meeting every Thursday night, yeah?  I would so not want to have to do that again - I promise we'll get your notes off of that thing."

Loki could hardly believe his luck as Antonia led him to an elevator, swiped a key card, and suddenly they were riding up, up further than he'd ever managed to make it on his own.

When the doors opened, it wasn't the room Loki remembered.  They still must have been a few floors below the balcony, and he quickly readjusted his mental map of the tower.  "Tony Stark lets you have free run of his penthouse?" he inquired dubiously.

"Just the lower floors of his personal area.  The labs and such.  He wants to base the Avengers here so at some point I might lose access if they renovate, but then I'll get a new work area so I'll probably come out ahead anyway.  It's a hell of a view up here though," Antonia responded, gesturing at a window.

Five minutes later Loki was dressed in yoga pants and a hooded sweatshirt that Antonia had produced from the gym clothes she kept on property - both woefully short in the arms and legs, and was sitting on a sofa sipping coffee laced with a spirit that he was pretty sure was bourbon.  His host was speaking to the disembodied assistant that appeared to live in the city and hooking up his tablet to a multitude of wires.

"You haven't been doing cloud backups on this thing, have you?" she said after a while.  "You know Stark's servers are the most secure in the world, right?  I'd recommend it."

"Go ahead and set it up then, I wasn't sure after..." Loki trailed off, hoping his chatty companion would fill in the gaps and not notice he hadn't the faintest clue what she was talking about.

"Yeah the competitions' hacks, I know." Success.  "It's really set that part of the business back but there's no reason we shouldn't feel confident using our internal servers."

Loki made a noncommittal sound of agreement and decided to take advantage of the situation and his host's current state of distraction by looking around.  It was clearly set up to be a mix of lounge facilities for anyone who needed access to Stark's assistant and a meeting space.  There was a projector and smart white board near the long table on the side of the main room opposite the the workstation where Antonia was busy with the tablet.   A thorough search lead him to no visible way to reach a higher floor aside from the locked elevator, but he did find a room with lockers and shower facilities and another with some armchairs and a billiards table.

His host found him arranging the balls on the table in a row a few minutes later.

"Nothing I can do but let JARVIS work at it now, want to play?"

"I can't say I've ever learned the exact rules," he replied, deflecting again.

"I'll show you, give it a try!"

The game was surprisingly diverting, Loki found.  He couldn't match Antonia's experience but  the pool cue was an easy enough thing to manage for a sorcerer with millenia of experience forming delicate spells with a staff.  Three-quarters of an hour had passed before he'd even realized it when the polite tones of the voice in the ceiling informed them that the data capture was complete.

"Thanks JARVIS.  You hear that?  We saved it!" Antonia turned to Loki with a big smile that Loki couldn't help returning.  Spiked coffee, the game, and he hadn't lost any work.  It was enough that he actually didn't mind so much not being able to climb the tower any further.

"Thank you, you've saved me a world of trouble," he said with feeling.

"My pleasure, seriously.  You didn't ask for me to be running late for a meeting and ruin your night.  I'm just glad it worked out.  I'll have all your data back on a new pad and send it to your desk tomorrow, that sound good?"

Loki was about to agree when his companion's phone went off.  She made a face.  "Sorry, I have to take this one, it's the group I cancelled on earlier and they're gonna be a while.  Can you make it home alright?"

"Of course.  I'm pretty close to home actually, I can just walk it."

"No no, here, call a cab."  Antonia pushed a twenty into his hand and waved him off with an apologetic smile, answering the complaining phone at last.  "Yeah I know but I'll have you know I spent the evening recovering data for D Labs' meeting today... Please.  Has anything actually changed since Monday?  That's what I thought..."

The dismissal was obvious, and Loki found himself wandering back to the elevator for lack of anything else to do.  Unable to resist, he pushed the button for the top floor.

"Miss Smythe, the upper floors are reserved for Mr. Stark and his associates," came a mild voice somewhere above her head.

"Oh, sorry," Loki lied easily.  It had been worth a shot, to see if the elevator was unlocked now.  "I wasn't paying attention.  What are you called, again?"

"JARVIS, ma'am."

"Thank you for saving my tablet, JARVIS.  Can you take me down to the lobby?"

"Of course, ma'am.  Miss Sachs has a cab waiting for you outside."

\---

Loki had somehow managed to forget about his clothes altogether so when there was also a garment bag from the dry cleaners containing the raincoat and outfit from the day before along with the shiny new Starkpad on his desk the next morning, it was a pleasant surprise.  It was less of a surprise but equally pleasant to find out that the tablet home screen looked just as it had the night previous, save for an IM window in the lower right corner.

**ASachs:** Hey, everything look good? :)

The god of lies smiled, settled himself in his chair and popped the tablet in his workstation so he could use the keyboard.

**LSmythe:** I get the impression you wouldn't have given it to me any other way.

**ASachs:** You're probably right, I got a reputation for being the best.

**LSmythe:** I was going to thank you but I think your ego doesn't need the boost.

**ASachs:** See if I do you a favor again. :P

Loki grinned at the screen but for the moment there was work to do, and it was another hour before she could respond.

**LSmythe:** I give in, thank you.  Five different people have asked me for yesterday's notes and I haven't even had a chance to get my coffee yet.

**ASachs:** Oh I thought we weren't talking anymore.  And I bet you sent those out first thing this morning and they aren't reading email, right?

**LSmythe:** Pray, how did you guess?

They spent the rest of that day and well into the next work week messaging each other, most of the time grousing about co-workers but slowly drifting to other topics.  The direction of the company and technology (Loki was glad to be talking via a text client so he could periodically look up terms on his company phone to keep abreast of the conversation) drifted to books, theatre, and music.  Antonia was trying to convince him to go in with her tickets to a nearby theater before long, and the possible shows were so enticing Loki thought it might be worth developing the acquaintance further so that he could more naturally drop hints about being allowed to tour Stark’s personal labs.  Their conversations continued through the weekends, always varying, always interesting and quickly becoming his favorite part of a given day.  One day, towards the end of the second week of their acquaintance, they were caught in an argument about fashion.

**LSmythe:** It's a multilayered topic, not simply what you put on your skin to protect it from the elements!  The right skirt got me this job (hiring manager is a lecherous creep, by the by).  A tight dress gets me into a club without paying cover, a square-shouldered suit makes sure nobody attempts to cross Potts at a shareholder's meeting.  It's all in appearances, with the right outfit I could convince you I was a queen!

He couldn't help smiling at that, and wasn't that strange?  When he wasn't bored and left with nothing but his own gloomy thoughts, he could actually laugh.

**ASachs:** Okay okay, I didn't realize my new BFF was the spokesgirl for Paris Fashion Week.

Loki had to google BFF and for a while didn't even realize Antonia was still typing.  Friends?  Over bad luck and text conversations?  He tried to recall the last time anyone had declared him their friend and tried to ignore the knot that developed in his stomach when he couldn't remember.  After a few moments the blinking of the message window commanded his attention again.

**ASachs:** Fine you want to prove it to me?  Take off after lunch.  I'm house-sitting while the boss is in Malibu and he gave me two tickets to one of those damn Stark-sponsored galas like that makes sitting around here worth it.  You come out with me, we use his credit card, get some outfits, and you show me dressing up can be fun.

**LSmythe:** You won't get in trouble?

**ASachs:** Have you seen his car collection?  If he notices two thousand on overpriced duds I'll wear a dress to work for a week.

**LSmythe:** Deal.  Pick me up?

**ASachs:** You got it.

\---

Keeping a running tab in his head, Loki was going to be incredibly surprised if Tony Stark didn't notice the dent they made in his savings account, but it was worth it to almost feel like himself again.  Or rather, a feminine version of himself, but there was something to be said for slinky silk gowns and fur wraps and gold jewelry dripping off every limb and waiters offering champagne at every turn.  Loki reveled in it.  Antonia looked less impressed by the food than he had been expecting - surely that could at least be something to get excited about? - but she carried off the crimson sheath dress perfectly.

"You lied to me," Loki murmured conspiratorially, passing her more champagne.  "There's no way that's your first time on stilettos."

"Just because I can doesn't mean I like it," she whispered back.  "As excited as you were to shop this afternoon I was expecting this evening to be fun."

"What would make it fun?  Do you need a crisis for anything to amuse you?"

Antonia leveled a sly grin at him and hopped up on to a bar stool, giving her the height advantage for once as she leaned over Loki.

"I could settle for making a scene," she murmured, leaning in, and Loki had just enough time to register what was happening before his companion's mouth covered her own.  His own hands came up on instinct, one to rest at her waist and the other to thread through her hair and rest at the nape of her neck.

She pulled back, glancing around and smiling devilishly at the looks some affronted businessmen were throwing them.  "Is this okay?" she asked, serious for just a moment and searching Loki's eyes for confirmation.  "I've been trying to think of a way to pull you in since you kicked my ass on that second round of pool.  Well, since you were there with your damn legs in a puddle looking like you wanted to kill me right then and there on the roadside but that's really not the best time to get a date.  Trust me, I speak from experience."

Loki could just about manage a dumbstruck look, but made no movement to pull his hands away.

"What?"

"Well, it's obvious you like the finer things, looking good, eating and drinking nice stuff, seeing gossip and society.  I saw the label in that coat and it’s not like I haven’t been paying attention the last two weeks.  So hey I figured girls' night out...see how it goes?"

The god of lies was relatively sure that he was supposed to give a response in the positive or negative at this point.  Antonia had mirrored his hand placement and her hands were surprisingly rougher than he’d expected, all calloused fingertips and warm palms.  If it had been a while since anyone had outwardly called him a friend, it was markedly longer since he’d found himself the object of pursuit.  Usually he’d been the one to initiate and thrilled in the chase.  He’d be lying if it wasn’t a delightful change of pace, particularly in a place where he’d despaired of finding anyone diverting enough to be worth his time.

“Hmm…” he replied, mouth curling up in a smile.  “It’s not a very good girl’s night out if one of us is bored.”  Leaning in to brush his lips against her earlobe, and pleased by the shiver that elicited, he murmured “But if you have somewhere else you think might be more fun then by all means let us hasten there.”

Several older men nearby were coughing meaningfully, while the younger ones next to them seemed entirely too engrossed.  Antonia saw them staring, grinned, and stuck out her tongue before grabbing Loki’s wrist and hauling him bodily out the room before pressing him against the wall outside for another kiss.

Making it down the hallway, back to the car, the drive, and the elevator ride up was a bit of a blur to Loki at that point - later he would need to take some time to marvel at how his partner could be this good with less than half a mortal’s lifetime of experience.  For the moment, he consented to let the smaller woman push him down to the sofa, encouraging the path she was currently nibbling up his throat with an arch of his neck and gasping in surprise when she’d somehow managed to get a hand underneath of the deliciously tight dress.  Loki was just moving to hike it up to give her more room when the first rocket smashed the window behind the sofa to pieces.

“SHIT!” Antonia jerked up like she’d been shot, stared out the gaping hole in the penthouse with widening eyes, and then, before Loki could finish sitting up to see what was happening, hauled them both the floor in time to avoid the rest of the windowed wall shattering around them.

“JARVIS, what’s going on?” she shouted over the sound of the entire penthouse’s alarms all going off at once. “And turn those off!”  The silence was immediate and gratifying.

“Twelve Doomboots approaching our position,” the unflappable AI’s voice responded.  “They are closing in rapidly.  I have notified SHIELD and I am working on the emergency contacts of the other Avengers but may I suggest evacuating the penthouse?”

“Doom is a cockblock.  Or whatever our equivalent is, JARVIS remind me to think of one,” Antonia muttered to herself, pushing herself upright and extending a hand to Loki, who took it.

“Stairs?” he managed to get out before she was tugging him along again, only to be drowned out by a siren.

“Doomboot arrival through the southern window in 35 seconds,” the AI intoned.  “Recommend deployment.”

“No, JARVIS, I can’t-”

“Odds of survival 1 to 76,035.  Deploying product, my apologies but it is for your own good.”

Loki ducked out of the way just in time as an armored chestplate flew past his head, and then couldn’t do much aside from press up against the wall to stay clear as pieces of familiar gold and red armor flew at Antonia’s body from all directions.  Now that the room was once more in ruins and he wasn’t wrapped around the woman, he belatedly realized that he’d actually made it to the top floor of the penthouse.  The train of thought was cut off when the last piece snapped to Iron Man’s body and a Doomboot was dispatched with a blast from her gauntlet before he even reached the windowsill.

He couldn’t help laughing - maybe she’d put it down to nerves.  The answer had been under his nose for two weeks, and he’d been completely taken in by her.  So simple, so ingenious.

_ She’d fooled him. _

Iron Man came over to him, metal boots clanking.  Face unreadable through the armor, though Loki imagined he was under scrutiny just then.  “Are you okay?”  The voice coming through the helmet’s speaker was unmistakably male.  Unmistakably Stark.

Loki giggled again.  “Antonia.  Toni.  Toni Stark.   _ How _ did I not see it before?”

The faceplate popped up, Toni’s face visible and now looking slightly apprehensive.  “Look I know it’s a lot to take in and-” the building was rocked then by another explosion.

“Ma’am, they appear to be working in concert.  I recommend defensive action to avoid significant structural damage to the tower.”

“Right,” she replied and the faceplate snapped back into place.  She stepped forward and scooped up Loki into her arms before she could even protest.

“Laurel, I’m getting you out of here.  Don’t look back, there’s going to be a mess and I don’t want anything falling on you.  Just run get out of here, do you understand me?”  Loki managed a nod before he was suddenly shooting out of the window and towards the ground at a speed far faster than he was comfortable with.  Thor was the flier, not him, and wasn’t that a thing, to be considering Thor now of all times?

Antonia thankfully pulled back just in time to deposit him gently on the pavement, lingering just long enough to make sure Loki could stand before shooting away back towards the robots swarming the tower like insects.

Right.  Run away, get out.  That he could do.  His shoes and wrap were missing and the night was cold and even if he hadn’t been uncomfortable he was suddenly no longer in the mood to behave like a mortal tonight.  He darted around the corner and vanished, reappearing on his own bed wearing his own skin for the first time in months.  He tried to quiet the beating in his heart, told himself this fight was of no consequence then relented a minute later and watched its progress on the news, only unclenching his fingers from his armchair when Iron Man reduced the last robot to an oily smear on the side of the tower and retreated back inside the penthouse.

He threw himself into bed to sleep, told himself not to feel regret that their relationship would cease before it had even begun, not to feel any loss at all, not to even think of Antonia, and did nothing else until his eyes finally dropped shut.

\---

Usually they continued to use their work phones to chat, even on the weekend.  Loki wasn’t surprised to see no messages that weekend.  He spent his time on tabloid pages, looking at old speculative articles about Tony Stark that he’d looked for months ago during his search for more information.  Nobody had ever suggested that Tony Stark as they knew him may simply not exist.  It was too absurd to consider.

And wasn’t it even more absurd,  he thought the next day as he was setting up a Monday morning breakfast meeting, smiling Laurel’s smile at his co-workers, that he hadn’t done anything about that?  This was the goal.  Find Tony Stark’s secret, expose it to the world, delight in the chaos.  He could even go to the magazines himself with his Stark badge, present himself as a credible source.  Once the vultures knew what to look for, it would only be a matter of time before they found their own material.

But once he did that, she’d never be able to fool anyone again.

He was sitting back at his desk, wondering at his own indecision when a messenger window popped up on his screen.

**ASachs:** I think we have a lot to talk about.  Can you come by the tower when you get out of work?  I have an open bar and snacks.

Loki stared at the screen, unsure how to respond.  Eventually, he decided it couldn’t hurt just to speak to her.  It was foolish to get attached to any of these mortals but he couldn’t deny that she was easily the most engaging on the entire planet.  The work here kept him busy but it was talking to Antonia that had actually made him pass days without mentally counting how many until he could leave.  Forget hiding her identity, sometime she even fooled him into thinking Midgard wasn’t so bad after all.  Earth’s greatest trickster, no contest.

**LSmythe:** I’ll be there.

**ASachs:** Thanks.

There was no conversation for the rest of the day, and by 5pm he still hadn’t notified the tabloids or sent out rumors on the intranet or made any arrangements to secure photos and release them himself so he decided he’d ought to go as much as not and see what she had to say.

JARVIS brought him up to the top floor of the penthouse with no objection.  The glass had been cleaned off of the floor but most of the walls were blocked off with black tarps, making the room much gloomier than it had appeared even by night just two days previous.

“Ordering new glass,” came a tired-sounding voice behind her.  “Twice this year it’s been broken by people with no regard for property damage.  I’m getting something custom-made this time.”

Antonia was sitting at the bar, dressed in a loose tank top and cargo pants that were stained with oil.  Under the black fabric Loki could make out the flickering light that up until just now he assumed was part of the suit and a shield against magical attacks from his scepter.  He stared at it for a moment, trying to work out if it was actually a part of her.

“Of all the questions,  _ that’s _ the one you want to lead with?” she commented, pulling him out of his thoughts.

“It’s as good as any.  I’d like a martini and for you to tell me if that’s actually embedded in your chest.”

She pulled down the shirt, not so far as to be indecent but enough that he could see the top ring of the arc reactor peeking over the neck.

“I was overseas on a demo of one of my missiles, back when we made weapons,” she explained while working on a pair of the drinks.  “I needed a male representative for anyone in that part of the world to purchase but I went along for technical support.  Turns out it was a plot to have me killed but the terrorists hooked me up to a car battery instead of letting the shrapnel eat my heart.  They found plans in my bags and told me I could either make them a missile or they kill me.  I made something neater for this,” she gestured to her chest, “and a suit.”

Loki nodded, taking the offered martini once it was finished and taking a sip.

“You could surely do business in other parts of the world as yourself.  Why go to such lengths to hide yourself?”

“Not in this industry.  It’s better than it was but back when I had to take over?  Not a chance.  My dad wanted a boy, made that abundantly clear,” she took a long sip of the martini.  “My godfather ran the business for the longest time, would have tried to keep me out forever if I hadn’t come up with this idea.”

She stopped talking and gave him a sidelong look before seeming to come to a decision.  “I’m sure you can respect needing to be someone you’re not.  Also, you’ve done very well but the fact that you even need to ask that question just makes it all the more obvious that Asgard is more progressive on the gender politics side of things.”

Loki stared, blinked a few times, and shed the guise of Laurel with a shiver of green light.

“Hardly.  I rather thought Midgard had the advantage there - at the very least your women wear trousers in public.”

He settled down on a bar stool then.  There was nothing to worry about for the moment, at least as far as being discovered.  If anyone could see them inside of the penthouse, Antonia’s secret would have leaked years ago.

“How did you know?” he asked.

“Sensors in the helmet.  I’ve been building a database of people I fight - their weapons, any weak spots I can find, particularly anything I haven’t seen before.  I was recording as much of your magic as possible during the last time we met and when I put on the suit, there was this aura around you that flagged as a match.  I figured it had to be you in disguise.”

“And you haven’t told anyone?  Strange.”

“And you still haven’t sung to the presses that Iron Man is a short chick with a voice modulator and a fancy metal suit.”

Loki pursed his lips, for the moment not sure how to explain himself.

“I of all people know a rumor is impossible to take back.  It’s important to take care with what one reveals.”

“I can’t imagine you took a job at Stark Industries for your health.  This was the endgame,” Toni leaned forward across the bar, triumph in her eyes.

“You look at me like you’ve won and yet I could kill you with a snap of my fingers,” he replied, truly baffled at her expression.

“What can I say?  I have a bafflingly bad sense of self-preservation.  Besides, if you wanted to kill me you would have done it by now.  You could kill me and steal anything in this penthouse excepting things I have locked down so tight you wouldn’t stand a chance.  I wouldn’t recommend messing with JARVIS, by the way.  You could have ruined  my life a hundred times over by now and you haven’t.  So I’ve extended the same courtesy to you.  Now I ask you - why?”

The god of lies grinned at her.  “Perceptive of you.  That’s the problem - no one here is perceptive.  Most in the nine realms aren’t, truth be told, but there is at least some diversion there.  Here - it’s routine, dullness, all of humanity locked into their own silly little lives and they are so easy to fool.

“But you fooled me.  And that has not happened in centuries.  I believed Tony Stark to be hideously malformed perhaps - or an invalid or merely a pretender stealing resources from a company that was not his own.  I must confess it never occurred to me that he might not even exist.”

His companion sighed, rummaging through her bar for some bourbon and pouring it straight into her empty martini glass.  She raised her eyebrows in a silent question and he slid his own glass over the bar to receive the same treatment.  Not the best mix of flavors but that wasn’t the most important thing.

“Pity I’m not going to get the add the God of Lies as a notch on my bedpost.  It was a close thing there.”

“I could find this ‘Doctor Doom’ for you and dole out an appropriate punishment?”

“Not unless you count confused sexual frustration as appropriate.  Actually scratch that, you probably do,” Antonia replied, glancing up to find Loki grinning at her like a shark.

They each sipped their bourbon in silence for a few minutes.

“Haven’t you called your Avengers yet?” he inquired.  “If I sit here much longer I’m liable to finish my drink and move on.”

“Move on to what?  Go back to wherever you’re living now, arrange your makeup and show up tomorrow to work as Laurel Smythe?  Because sorry, it doesn’t look to me like you’re doing much supervillainy right now.”

“What would you have me do, then?” he asked, genuinely interested.

“Redemption is a bit much to ask I know but...damn is it wrong I wish we could still be talking?  It’s bad enough I still wish those Doombots hadn’t interrupted us on Friday but hell that’s nothing new, I’ve slept with worse.”

Loki tilted his head.  “What could  _ possibly _ be worse than me?”

She shrugged.  “If I tilt my head and squint I can sort of pretend you didn’t know any better.  I mean, what’s a bunch of mortals to you?  By contrast some of the businessmen I’ve fooled around with were monsters.  Fun, though.”

When met with nothing but a raised eyebrow, she continued.  “I don’t know, it’s been great and I guess if we’re supposed to be enemies we should stop.  Frankly if you expose me you know I’ll hunt you down so we’re probably at an impasse.”

“I can agree with that,” he replied, lifting his glass for her to toast.

“Too bad though,” she sighed, as Loki vanished.

\---

As a matter of fact Loki  _ did _ go to work, and continued to do so for the rest of the week, though Antonia’s false username was never online.  He began to wonder if she’d just been using it for his benefit.  The busywork still took up his days, days he would need to pass in exile anyway, but he found it difficult not to think about her.  He could easily expose her secret and vanish to another continent before the Avengers could be assembled to serve out the rest of his sentence, but what fun would that be?  Against all odds he’d begun to enjoy the busyness of the city, its food, watching the mortals.  But it had been more fun when he’d had a goal.

On Friday it hit him like a ton of bricks and for a while he was honestly surprised it had taken him that long to come up with such a foolproof way to cause all of the mayhem he wanted.

New Year’s Eve was the next night, and it took sneaking invisibly into three different parties to find Antonia at one whose host he didn’t recognize.  But it was obvious enough that the guestlist was exclusive and on account of her dedication to subterfuge, she’d probably only been able to come along as Pepper Potts’ guest.  Loki briefly wondered if the three of them were the only people on the planet that knew her secret.  He’d have to ask tonight.

She was dressed in a sequined gold gown that pooled around her feet, interestingly enough from the same fashion house where he’d picked her red dress the week before.  For the moment she was ignoring the admiring eyes focused her way, instead more interested in her drink and her CEO.

Loki slipped into a hallway and focused on a new glamour, one cultivated from an afternoon sketching a face from a variety of angles and studying every stitch of an Armani suit in a shop until he had been thrown out.  It was more difficult than the practiced shapes of Laurel’s figure, but he’d worked on this one for over a day.  It was perfect.

You could hear a pin drop when Tony Stark in the flesh walked into the party room.  The piano player literally stopped and stared, and if Loki had spent more than a moment surveying the crowd before heading straight to the bar, he would have been blinded by what seemed to be countless camera flashes as everyone present pulled out their phones.

As it was, he passed a twenty from his pocket to the dumbstruck bartender and secured a bourbon before moving to lean against the bar next to Antonia, lifting his drink in greeting.  She looked torn between irritation and laughter which was a good start.  Pepper Potts was gaping but quickly turned away for another drink lest she give anything away.

Antonia let a flirtatious smile spread over her lips, the one he remembered from the last time they were at a fancy party together, and rose up on her tiptoes with her lips towards his ear.  He obligingly leaned towards her so that he could hear the immediate, “What the hell do you think you are doing?”

He laughed and slid his free arm around her waist.  More camera flashes.

“You should be thanking me.  A flesh-in-blood sighting is going to do more than your rumor mill and doctored photos ever could.”

“And why would you ever be helping me?”

“I gave it some thought and I prefer lying to the world than telling them the truth about you.  This is  _ much _ more fun, just look at all those cameras!”

Antonia glanced around as though suddenly realizing how public they were.  Her eyes slowly found his again and took him in - the matching eyes, the goatee, the suit - it was all perfect really.  Exactly like she had designed so many years ago.

“I’ve never been one for the best choices,” she said slowly, “But I won’t lie here, I did good.  I would definitely fuck myself.”

He put down his drink and wrapped his own hands around her waist.  “You’re an egotist.”

“You’re one to talk.”

“Maybe.  But perhaps something could be arranged…  _ if _ you treat me to a nice night out.”

“What say we skip the night out?  I know a place we can go.  Little beat up still but private.  And you can’t beat the view.”  
Loki leaned in and captured her mouth with his own before leaning back just enough to say with a smile, “I think I could be persuaded.”

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt for this was "Rule 63!Tony - Loki is immensely intrigued by the Iron Man, who has never been seen in public outside of “his” armor. Not even the Avengers know that Iron /Man/ is a actually a Toni (or Natasha, or Antonia, or w/e!), and when Loki finds out, he makes it his mission to reveal her secret to the world. But along the way, she just so happens to ensnare him so irrevocably, his main goal of exposing her falls to the wayside in favor of exploring a woman not afraid to call him out." I hope I did it justice and roodlz and anyone else reading enjoyed this as much as I did writing it. Happy Holidays!


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